Julie Choi
Objective 7 & 9
Summarize the actions of Hitler from 1932-39
Background of Hitler
Rise of National Socialism
Women's Roles
Antisemitism
- During his 5 years in Vienna, Adolf Hitler learned to hate Jews & Marxists. He hated liberalism & democracy & in cheap cafes he directed political harangues. In 1913 Hitler volunteered for German army during Great War. He was disappointed by Germany's defeat. He came into contact with a political party sympathetic to his ideas. In 1921 he became chairman of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis).
- National Socialism (Nazi movement) made 1st major appearance in 1923 when party members & Adolf Hitler attempted to overthrow the democratic Weimar Republic that replaced German empire. Hitler went to jail for it. He then reorganized the party and decided to get power through legality
Rise of National Socialism
- National Socialism made gains after 1929 because it had broad appeal. Hitler attracted disillusioned people who felt alienated from society & frightened by socialist revolution.
- People blamed German democracy for Germany’s misfortunes: Treaty of Versailles; hyperinflation of early 1920s that ; suffering caused by the Great Depression; & infighting among the major political parties. Hitler promised to end this by bringing a new, better order. Although Nazis avoided class divisions by recruiting followers from all socialism, they appealed to members of lower-middle class.
- Impact of Great Depression & political infighting led to street battles. Germany's leaders wanted to stop unemployment but the public didn't trust them. The public was unwilling to defend the government they considered ineffective & corrupt. The Nazi Party became single largest party in parliament, & president Paul von Hindenburg, decided to offer Hitler the chancellorship. Hitler changed the government into a single-party dictatorship
- They eliminated working-class & liberal opposition. Nazis suppressed German communist & socialist parties, abrogated virtually all constitutional & civil rights.
- Hitler outlawed all other political parties, made it a crime to make a new party, & made National Socialist Party the only legal party. The regime replaced Germany’s federal structure with highly centralized state that eliminated the autonomy previously exercised by state & municipal govs.
- The National Socialist state got rid of trade unions & collective bargaining, subsequently prohibiting strikes & lockouts. Nazis also purged judiciary & civil service, took control of all police forces, & removed enemies of the regime through incarceration or murder.
Women's Roles
- Women lost opportunities. In Nazi ideology men & women inhabited distinct & separate spheres, with women having roles of wife & mother. Nazis launched a campaign to increase births because of decreasing birthrates.
- They encouraged marriage among young people with tax credits, special child allowances, & marriage loans. Men could get a divorce only if wife was sterile. They outlawed abortions, closed birth control centers, restricted birth control devices, & made it difficult to obtain info about family planning.
- They also did a pronatalist (to increase births) propaganda. Annually on 12 August (birthday of Hitler’s mother) women who bore many children received Honor Cross of German Mother in 3 classes (4+: bronze; 6+: silver; 8+: gold). In long term efforts failed & birthrate remained below replacement level.
Antisemitism
- Antisemitism (prejudice against Jews) was the hallmark of National Socialist ideology & Nazis took systematic measures to suppress Germany’s Jewish population.
- Nazi Antisemitism was based on biological racial studies from 19th century. In the 1930s, government authorities used religious descent to determine who was a Jew.
- Discriminatory laws & directives designed to humiliate, impoverish, & segregate Jews followed. In 1935 Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship & prohibited marriage & sexual intercourse between Jews & Germans. The Nazi party (with cooperation from gov agencies, banks, businesses) took steps to eliminate Jews from economic life & expropriate their wealth. Party authorities supervised liquidation of Jewish-owned businesses or arranged for their purchase (at less than their true value) by companies owned or operated by gentiles.
- Official goal of Nazi regime was Jewish emigration. Thousands of Jews left Germany.
- The exodus gained urgency after “the night of broken glass” (Kristallnacht). During the night of 9-10 November 1938, Nazis arranged for destruction of Jewish stores, burning of all synagogues, & murder of more than 100 Jews throughout Germany & Austria. This progrom (Yiddish for devastation) signaled that Jews’ position would decrease in Hitler's regime. Although they had difficulty of finding refuge, 250,000 Jews left Germany.
Analyze the struggle in China between communists and nationalists.
Revolution
Nationalism & Communism
Split Between Nationalists & Communists
- A revolution in 1911 forced emperor Xuantong to abdicate, ending the Qing Dynasty.
- Revolution didn't establish a stable government. The public plunged into a state of political anarchy & economic disintegration marked by rule of warlords, disaffected generals from old imperial Chinese army, & their troops.
- While central gov in Beijing ran the post office & a few other services, warlords established themselves as provincial or regional rulers. Because warlords were responsible for neglect of irrigation crucial to survival of farmers, for the revival of opium trade, which they protected, & for decline of crucial economic investment, they contributed to decline of Chinese society.
- They never founded a new dynasty or create a stable central state.
- Fragmented relationship between native authority & foreign powers was another problem. The unequal treaties established a network of foreign control over Chinese economy that effectively prevented econ development. Continued sway of unequal treaties & other concessions permitted foreigners to intervene in Chinese society. Foreigners didn't control the state but through their privileges they impaired its sovereignty
Nationalism & Communism
- After Great War, nationalist sentiment developed rapidly in China. Youths & intellectuals (in previous decade looked to the West for reform of China) anticipated results of 1919 Peace Conference in Paris. They expected US government to support termination of treaty system & restoration of full Chinese sovereignty. Instead peacemakers approved increased Japanese interference in China.
- This led to May Fourth Movement. Headed by students & intellectuals in China’s urban areas, movement galvanized country & all classes protested against foreign interference. The movement's leaders pledged themselves to rid China of imperialism & reestablish national unity.
- Disillusioned by self-interest of US & Europe, some Chinese became interested in Marxist thought as modified by Lenin & the social & economic experiments underway in Soviet Union.
- Anti-imperialist rhetoric of Soviet leadership was popular & in 1921 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was organized in Shanghai. Among its early members was Mao Zedong who viewed Marxist-inspired social revolution as the cure for China’s problems.
- Chinese communists championed women’s equality. They believed in divorce, opposed arranged marriages, campaigned against foot binding.
- Most prominent nationalist leader at the time, Sun Yatsen, didn't agree with communism. Sun’s basic ideology, summarized in his 3 Principles of the People, called for elimination of special privileges for foreigners, national reunification, economic development, & a democratic republican government based on universal suffrage. To realize his goals he wanted to put China under control of National People’s Party (Guomindang).
- Members of CCP began to augment ranks of Guomindang & later were ⅓ of the party. Both organizations availed themselves of assistance offered by Soviet Union. Under the doctrine of Lenin’s democratic centralism (stressing centralized party control by highly disciplined group of revolutionaries) Soviet advisers helped reorganize Guomindang & CCP into effective political organization & gave China basis of new political system
Split Between Nationalists & Communists
- After death of Sun Yatsen, leadership of Guomindang went to Jiang Jieshi. In contrast to communists, he didn't hold a vision for social revolution involving the masses of China.
- He launched a political & military offensive called Northern Expedition that aimed to unify nation & bring China under Guomindang rule. Toward the end of his successful campaign, he turned against his former communist allies, bringing the alliance of convenience between Guomindang & CCP to an end.
- Nationalist forces occupied Beijing, set up cent gov in Nanjing, & declared Guomindang the official government of unified & sovereign Chinese state. The Communists retreated to remote area of Southeast China to reconstitute & reorganize their forces
- New national government confronted 3 major problems during 1930s: Nationalists controlled only a part of China, leaving the remainder of country under warlords; Communist revolution was still a major threat; Guomindang faced increasing Japanese aggression
- In dealing with these problems, Jiang Jieshi prioritized eliminating the CCP & its Red Army. The communists fled their haven to escape nationalist forces & broke through the military blockage around their bases in Jiangxi province.
- Red Army began Long March (journey of 10,000 km to establish headquarters at Yan’an). Although many died, Long March inspired many Chinese to join Communist Party.
- During Long March, Mao Zedong emerged as leader & principal theoretician of the Chinese communist movement. He came up with a Chinese form of Marxist-Leninism (Maoism), an ideology grounded in conviction that peasants rather than urban proletarians were foundation for a successful revolution.